"Over here, quickly!" the elf girl shouted as she ran to where she lead the charge. As they were dashing along, they spotted a man with brown-gray hair dressed in a red shirt and long white pants with metal shoulder guards.

"Lowe!" the red-haired boy shouted. "Did you see Banthus pass by?"

"He was acting suspicious so I decided to tail him but I lost him. What happened?" he asked, noting the distressed look on the boy's face.

"The bandit ran off with the El Shard!" Aisha exclaimed hastily.

"We have to track him down as quickly as possible!" the boy chimed in.

"What?! We have to inform the chief about this right away!" He quickly ran into the village, a sign spelling out "Ruben" in bold words. Aisha and the other two followed, stopping in front of a wooden building, presumably the chief's office. As the red-haired boy and Lowe went inside, Aisha decided to take stock of the newcomer who had joined them.

Long pointy ears signified that she was indeed an elf. She had long lime-green hair and light green eyes. She had on a black collar with a gold triangle or arrow head-like centerpiece. A green tank top with black straps and blue checker patterns revealed a large amount of her belly and a little bit of her voluminous breasts. Green and blue armbands in the same checker pattern was connected to a golden arm bracelet on its bottom and a large black band on the top. White linen wrist wraps were adorned with thick black bracelets topped with a reddish-pink button on each one. A tight brown belt was wrapped around her waist, another reddish-pink button pinned to the side. A black miniskirt rimmed with dark turquoise was tucked under the belt, leaving half of her thighs exposed. Long white socks vanished into black boots with white soles and reddish-pink buttons in the middle ringed with blue. In her left hand was a large bow, the limbs patterned green with black on the edges and in the middle. Smaller blue and white ornaments spiraled together to create wing-like shapes sprouting out on each side of the grip.

"So you're an archer?" Aisha guessed.

"That's right," the elf girl confirmed. "Who might you be?"

"I'm Aisha, magician extraordinaire!" she boasted, summoning her staff and twirling it in the air. "I have no idea who the red-haired brat is, though," she scowled.

"Well, I'm Rena," the elf girl said. "Are you also helping to look for the El Shard?"

"Yeah, seeing as how I don't really have much of a choice," she grumbled as she de-summoned her staff.

Rena cocked her head. "Whatever do you mean?"

Aisha sighed. "Well, I wanted to investigate the El Shard to see something... but then those filthy bandits show up!" she ended with a shout. "If that boy hadn't interfered, I could've caught them!" She paced around for a bit, venting her frustrations -which were quickly becoming more and more focused on how incompetent and rude the boy was.

"If I were you, I would want to get back the stolen El Shard as soon as possible," Rena interrupted. "He probably didn't think to go through formalities when he wanted to catch the bandits as soon as possible."

"Yeah... that is true..." Aisha mumbled. "But that still doesn't excuse his rudeness!" she screeched.

"What rudeness?" the red-haired boy asked as he walked out of the office with Lowe.

"Your rudeness!"

"What do you mean?" he snapped, temper beginning to flare.

"I saved your life and you didn't even tell me your name!"

"I saved your life so we're even!"

"Don't you guys want to hear where the bandits are-?" Lowe attempted to interfere.

"I told you my name; you should have the courtesy to tell me yours!" Aisha shouted, the argument turning into an all out scream fest.

"Guys-"

"Well then, what IS your name?!"

"Aisha! Now what's yours?!"

"Guys...-!" Rena hissed, her voice taking on a warning tone.

"Elsword! You satisfied?!"

"Of COURSE NOT! IF YOU HAD JUST SAID THAT IN THE FIRST PLAC-"

"GUYS! ENOUGH!" Rena screeched, positively fed up with the argument by now. She cleared her throat awkwardly and heaved a big sigh. She muttered a quick apology to Lowe under her breath before stomping over to the two kids.

"Right then, both of you. Do you want to get the El Shard back, or not?!" she asked, her voice hitching on a dangerous tone. "'Cause right now, arguing isn't going to do anything!" She then promptly whacked them both on the head. "Continue, please," she smiled at Lowe while sighing internally. And I promised not to get into a rage like that...!

"Uh- right." Lowe stammered as he cleared his throat before continuing. "You say Banthus was the one who stole the El Shard, correct?" The rest of the group nodded. "Well, we've found traces of unknown bandits hanging around Lake Noah's. I've got a strong suspicion that they're Banthus's bandits. You can go ahead and beat the information out of them if you have to, but try not to draw too much attention."

"And why should we follow you?" Aisha asked haughtily.

Rena shot a barely concealed murderous glare at her before answering. "Would you rather not have any lead at all?" She gave a warm smile as Aisha cringed. "I thought so."

"Besides that, you'll have to be authorized in order to carry out missions like these. I'm hoping that we'll be able to catch and take back the El from Banthus quickly, but if worst comes to worst you'll have to be authorized to enter the big cities and conduct searches. I've temporarily enrolled the two of you into the El Scouts, so you'll have to follow my orders as long as we're in Ruben."

"And when did you do this?" Aisha asked.

"While I was talking with the chief, Hagus," Lowe replied smoothly. "I'm not stupid nor useless, you know."

"Seemed like it to me..." Aisha muttered under her breath, smirking slightly when nobody argued. Rena merely sighed as she motioned for Elsword to lead them to Lake Noah's.


"Is all of that really necessary...?" Rena questioned.

"Well, none of them were even much of a challenge," Elsword replied, haphazardly chucking the bandit over his shoulder.

Aisha frowned. "But I thought bandits were uncommon."

"Maybe with Banthus on the move, the number of bandits have grown," Rena pondered uncertainly.

"Who cares? We found the paper, so we have to get a move on!"

"You mean I found it," Aisha corrected, twirling her staff and waving around a piece of paper that detailed Banthus's plans. Rena swiftly plucked the paper out of her hands and skimmed over it as she headed back to Ruben.

"This thing is coded... and I'm not very good at codes in the Ellian language..." she muttered to herself.

"Banthus had the smarts to actually code his plans?" Aisha gasped. "Guess he's not a total meat-head, unlike a certain someone."

"Hey!" Elsword protested. Rena sighed (yet again) as another argument arose between the two children.


"Mister Lowe, we found this from the bandits," Rena explained as she handed over the paper to him. Behind her, Elsword and Aisha were still bickering, their voices starting to grate against her ears. She spun around and shot a death glare at the two children. "Do you know what it says?" she continued.

"This...!" he muttered out loud. "This claims that Banthus has been planning to steal the El Shard for a while now!"

"What?!" Elsword screeched.

"If this is true..." Rena muttered.

"There have been rumors circulating around that Banthus has a magic amulet that can control the holy beast..." Lowe hissed. "I'll alert the chief and the townsfolk of this new development! The three of you should travel to the Tree of El and intercept Banthus, as fast as possible!"

"Right!" Elsword shouted as the three travelers burst out of the village and into the forest beyond.


Rewritten: Aug 31, 2016

Hopefully I patched up a few issues in this chapter (and hopefully didn't create more issues huehuehue). There's a few events in this chapter that don't line up perfectly with chappie 4, but I'll fix those when chappy 4 gets rewritten (which, at this rate will be never, cuz i keep procrastinating... halp)